At the beginning of April 2011 we were given the good news that the Climate Challenge Fund had decided to fund the design to planning stage of our hydro scheme, and a local food project.  

We put the hydro study out to tender and received six bids.  Synergie Scotland eventually emerged as our favoured company and they are working hard on designing our scheme, working out the finances and putting in place all of the permissions we will need.  The study must be completed by March 31st.

Our Grow to Eat local food project has taken off and we have appointed Claire Nicolson as the part-time coordinator for the project, and brought in a partner - the Scottish Crofting Federation, and sought additional funding from the Well North Small Grants Scheme. 

We have already run four practical workshops in gardening and tractor skills and set up a community 'croft'.  There will be more events, workshops and talks over the year -  visit the Grow to Eat page, where you can connect to a dedicated website for the project.

Unfortunately our bid for footpaths funding was not successful, but we will continue to seek funding for this exciting project from other sources.